Russia’s Progress MS-12 space freighter splashes down in Pacific

AMUR REGION, RUSSIA - DECEMBER 27, 2018: A Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with a Fregat-M upper stage block lifts off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome to deliver Russia's Kanopus-V No 5 and No 6 remote sensing satellites and 26 foreign spacecraft to orbit. Yuri Smityuk/TASS. Sketched by the Pan Pacific Agency.

MOSCOW, Nov 30, 2019, TASS. Russia’s Progress MS-12 resupply ship that undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) earlier on Friday has splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, the press office of the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIIMash, the Roscosmos main research institute) told TASS on Friday.

“The cargo craft was de-orbited and at about 5:19 p.m. Moscow time its fragments that had not burnt up in the dense layers of the atmosphere splashed down in the Pacific Ocean outside shipping routes,” the press office said.

The Progress MS-12 cargo craft undocked from the International Space Station at 1:25 p.m. Moscow time on Friday, several hours before firing its braking engines to re-enter the dense layers of the atmosphere.

The Progress MS-12 was launched by a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 31. The space freighter docked with the International Space Station on the same day, using an ultra-short flight scheme. The flight lasted a record short period of 3 hours and 19 minutes. During an ultra-short scheme, a spacecraft makes two orbits around the Earth.

Russia is set to launch its next Progress MS-13 resupply ship on December 6. The space freighter will blast off aboard a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from the Baikonur spaceport.

Pacifica’s Markets

Pan Pacific Agency is a News & Analytical Agency on the domestic and cross-border policy, economy and interstate relations of the largest Pacific countries from West America to South-East Asia and Oceania, including Indo-Pacific Region.